Originally posted by ShaolinBill
Could someone give me a brief overview on the various metals used for Spyderco knives? Which are better/best quality, etc.?
On my Spydies, I see:
CPM 440V
ATS 34
ATS 55
VG 10
AUS 8 Stainless
Thanks, Bill
The first thing you want to do is get out of the mindset of there being some objective measure of "better/best". That's too dependent on the design and use of the knife, the steel's heat treatment, and the user's preferences, to be even remotely objective. Instead, just try to understand the characteristics of each steel, and then judge the steel by what use you want to put it to.
Some examples:
CPM 440V is the most wear-resistant of the above steels, and it is very stain resistant as well. Sounds like an instant winner, right? Well, as heat treated by Spyderco, 440V is also weak, which will drastically effect edge-holding for certain kinds of jobs, and also limit your ability to put a very thin, high-performance edge on your knife. If you're just going to universally stick a 20 degree edge on your knives, then this might be the high-end choice for you. Well, except that many people (myself included) find it hard to get 440V to take a razor edge, another performance problem.
VG-10 is also very stain resistant, and it's the next-most wear-resistant in the bunch above, but not nearly as wear resistant as 440V. But, Spyderco's VG-10 is much stronger than Spyderco's 440V, and is much more easily-sharpenable to a razor edge. BTW, I specify "Spyderco's 440V" instead of just "440V" because, as I said above, heat treat matters. Spyderco keeps their 440V soft to enhance toughness and sharpenability; many other makers leave their 440V much harder, enhancing strength but sacrificing toughness and sharpenability.
ATS-34 is not as stain resistant or tough as VG-10, nor does it take quite the razor edge VG-10 does. Versus Spyderco's 440V, ATS-34 is not as wear resistant nor stain resistant, but it is much stronger and it is easier to sharpen.
So what steel is best? Well, if it's a dive knife, the answer might be none of the above. 8A has better rust resistance than any of 440V, VG-10, or ATS-34. And even though 8A lacks some strength and wear resistance, if it's a dive knife, I might care most about rust resistance. You can see there are often tradeoffs for all these steels, although not always -- I would probably take VG-10 universally over ATS-34, and I'd pick both universally over ATS-55. Well no, even that is a lie: putting VG-10 or ATS-34 in a knife can really hike up the price point substantially. So if one of your objectives is to minimize expense, you might end up going with the lower-price-point ATS-55 or 8A knives.
Joe
